North and South

Is English history really just one long story of North vs. South, as James Hawes says it is? (He's trying to repeat his tale of two countries trick that - admittedly! - worked pretty well for his Shortest History of Germany.)

What about the most important division in English history - that between the two universities at the time of the Protestant Revolt? What about the Civil Wars that followed? What about the conversion of England, for that matter? Does Hawes' North-South divide map onto Celtic (or pre-Roman, at any rate) tribes? What about the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms?

I suppose I should give it a look - one of these days.

UPDATE: Certainly there's no obvious North-South division of political opinions - except perhaps on the issue of tax.

UPDATE II: The simple reality is that the "North-South" divide is at least as much an "East-West" one.